My grandfather used one of those little electric wires around his garden. It didn’t kill any chucks or groundhogs, just deterred them. It probably wouldn’t hurt to try it.
(Unless you have a group of obnoxious grandchildren who keep daring each other to go and touch it)
Garden update;
All marigolds eaten
Borage flower buds eaten, the Borage is now nothing more than a stick
Boston Head Lettuce eaten, none left
Di Rapa broccoli untouched, DiCiccio broccoli gone
That said, I had a VERY succesful sniping session today, and was able to test out, well, read on…
Rifle: NEF single-shot .22 with Bushnell 3-9X 32mm scope, Shooter’s Ridge 9-13" bipod
Ammo: first shot Augila SubSonic Sniper, second shot CCI Velocitor
Distance to target; 35 feet
Kills: TWO!
After seeing the current state of my garden, I was furious, I was determined to take at least one woodchuck today, I set up behind the toolshed, prone on the grass, the wind was blowing towards me, air temps were 53 degrees, since I was downwind of the 'chucks, i wasn’t worried about them scenting me
I flipped the legs of the bipod open, set the scope to 5.5X, loaded a Augila SSS, closed the action, and waited…
about 20 minutes later, a woodchuck poked it’s head out of the hole, still I waited, it exited the burrow, and began to amble towards the back of the hay barn, I drew a bead on center-mass, exhaled, and fired
With a POP!, the 60 grain bullet zipped towards the chuck, slamming onto him, and knocking him down and rolling him sideways (unfortunately towards the burrow), he emitted a couple plaintive screeches, began to twitch, and was still, I got up to confirm the kill, grabbed my Ruger Mark II, and ran to the barn, the little critter had enough fight in him to sneak back under the barn, D’OH!
examining the kill zone, there was a decent amount of blood spatter, showing I DID hit him, and probably wounded him badly enough that he’ll die under the barn, this kill I cannot confirm, but he sure won’t be eating any of my garden for the foreseeable future
Since I hadn’t confirmed the kill, I decided to go back to my shooting area and set up for another shot, hoping that the stupid thing would come back out for a definite kill
this time, I loaded a CCI Velocitor, the SSS hit hard and hit well, but didn’t create enough damage for a critical hit
Another twenty minutes goes by…
I’m beginning to get discouraged, and start contemplating packing it in and just using the trap, when what do I see peeking out from under the barn, another furry skull, this 'chuck pokes it’s head out just far enough to whistle a few times, I wait a good five minutes, crosshairs trained on it’s skull, it’s clear the thing is spooked, and hesitant to come out, what the heck, I’ll take the shot, move the crosshairs to just below the ear, and fire!
The NEF emits a mighty crack (well, mighty for a .22, that is), and the 40-grain hollowpoint bullet screams towards it’s target at a brisk 1,435 FPS, breaking the sound barrier, and the 'chuck disappears from my crosshairs, CRAP, I missed!, oh well, maybe I can see where the bullet impacted…
I grab the Mark II, just in case, and walk over to the barn again, as I approach the burrow, I see a furry brown head lying peacefully on the ground, surrounded by a copious puddle of blood, the 'Chuck is clearly dead, I can see where the Velocitor entered perfectly in one ear and exited the other, the bullet went exactly where it was aimed, the scope was dead-on at 35 feet
once again, just to be on the safe side, I fired another Velocitor round from the Mark II into the 'chuck’s skull to confirm the kill, that round entered and exited the skull cleanly as well
I went into the toolshed to grab a"pokey-stick" to confirm the kill and to pull the 'chuck out of it’s burrow
I was amazed at how big it was, it was the size of a good-sized domestic cat, it must’ve weighed a good ten pounds, I’m sure a good percentage of that weight was from my garden plants :mad: as I flipped it over, I could see it was a female, I’m sure she was the one that I kept seeing on the lawn…
She won’t be eating any more of my plants now, that’s for sure
It’s clear that the CCI Velocitor is the superior varmint round, it did the most damage to the 'chuck, humanely dropping her with one shot, just like yesterday, the second shot to confirm the kill was not necessary, the first shot scrambled her brains most effectively and turned off her light switch instantly, while still retaining sufficient energy to exit her skull and bore a hole in the ground beside her
I have a new favorite round for varmint hunting, the CCI Velocitor
http://homepage.mac.com/mactechg4/.Pictures/IMG_3112 2.jpg
You ought to use a Staff of ZOT.
ISTR an “Ask the Priest of the Internet Oracle” thread a few years back. Oracular Priest, please pick up the red courtesy phone… No, this is the white courtesy phone, your message is on the red courtesy phone.
You unloaded the rifle before that first picture, right? Because I wouldn’t have been surprised if the damn thing was shamming, jumped up, grabbed the gun and shot you.
Yep, besides, that rifle is a single shot model, in order for a stunned woodchuck to use one against me, it’d have to figure out how to open the action, remove a cartridge from the ammo box, insert it into the breech, close the action, thumb back the hammer, acquire the target, while compensating for close-range parallax through the scope, and then firing
the whole “lack of opposable thumbs” thing woodchucks have makes even the first step difficult, and makes removing ammo from the box even more difficult…
I’d say I’m safe…
Death adds an extra degree of safety, unless it’s coming for brainsss!
StG
At a gun show, I saw a t-shirt. The first picture was a woodchuck, and the caption said, “This is your brain.” The second picture was a headless woodchuck, and the caption said, “This is your brain on hollowpoints.”
So far, no more signs of Marmota Monax incursions into the garden, I think I got 'em all (the latest Pocketmonster thingy craze?), ever since I Smote the big female with 40 grains of brains-scrambling lead, there has been nothing in the Havahart trap, and the garden remains unmolested
…of course, now that I’ve posted this, [Ahnold]they’ll be back![/Ahnold]